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enSani-Sure Dairy Towels: https://americandairymen.com/articles/sani-sure-dairy-towels
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<h2><span style="color:#008000;"><strong><span style="font-size: 26px;">Save Time, Money and Reduce Landfill Waste</span></strong></span></h2>
<p>By Steve Weisman</p>
<p>George Carlin, a famous American comedian known for his insightful quotes, once said, “Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not?”</p>
<p>Those words aptly describe Paul Fowler, a longtime dairy farmer near Oshkosh, Wisconsin, who is known as a successful dairyman, a business entrepreneur and a believer in protecting the environment for future generations.</p>
<p>With his wife Justine, they were recognized as the Outstanding Dairy Couple for a five-state region in 1966, he was awarded the Farmer of the Year by the Associated Milk Producers in 1973 and the Katherine D. Rill Environmental Award in 2010.</p>
<p>As a business entrepreneur, Paul along with his wife Justine founded Northwest Feed Research, an agriculturally based feed supply company, in 1972, which one day would become today’s highly successful business, Northwest Envirofan.</p>
<p><span style="color:#008000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong>Realizing the Vision</strong></span></span><br />Over the next several years, Paul made several acquisitions and expansions in product lines and added industrial and commercial divisions, which focused on environmental control systems and equipment. In 1982, the business was incorporated as Northwest Environmental Systems, Inc., which better described the line of environmental control and energy saving systems and equipment. Northwest turned its focus to ceiling fans and ceiling fan accessories in the years that followed.</p>
<p>Northwest became a multi-generational family business in 1988 when Paul and Justine’s daughter Janet was brought in as a sales manager and eventually escalated to VP and currently stands as President. Janet Fowler Dahl and her husband Bob Dahl purchased full stock in the company and took over management. Today, Janet is the President and CEO, while Bob is the VP and Operations Manager. Their sons Vince Dahl and Evan Dahl have now joined them and are an integral part of the operations and supply chain management, hoping to turn this into a 4th generation business.</p>
<p>In 1995, Northwest purchased the U. S. operations of Envirofan, Inc., including all rights to the “Envirofan” trade name, from Tee-Comm Electronics of Milton, Ontario. At that time, Northwest adopted the name Northwest Envirofan as the trade name for the ceiling fan division of the company. Today, Northwest Environmental Systems continues to service the agricultural industry with a specially designed ceiling fan built for agricultural and severe service environments.</p>
<p><span style="color:#008000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong>Going Green</strong></span></span><br />Years ago, Paul grew tired of wasting paper towel after paper towel preparing and cleansing each milk cow for milking. At the same time, he was frustrated with the huge volume of paper waste after each milking, and he believed other dairy farmers felt the same way. Paul’s research in 1994 led him to a source of recycled towels that would serve as an excellent alternative to paper towels for wiping the udders on dairy cows in preparation for milking. Thus, the Sani-Sure Cloth Dairy Towels came into being. Farmers soon found they could save a lot of money over the cost of paper towels, and they, too, began to realize the importance of being environmental stewards.</p>
<p>As Paul got other dairy producers to try the towels, he began to garner a loyal following, but dealers were hesitant, believing that dairy farmers would not make the switch. So, Northwest decided to market directly to farmers. Within seven years, sales of towels had gone from 1 percent to 40 percent of sales.</p>
<p>Today, approximately 90 percent of all cloth dairy towels sold to the dairy industry come from Sani-Sure (<a href="http://www.sani-sure.com">www.sani-sure.com</a>), a division of Northwest Environmental Systems designed to assist farmers in “Going Green” and preserving their environment.<br />Janet Dahl, President and Product Manager, says, “Sani-Sure Cloth Dairy Towels clean and dry the udder better than paper, and they save money. Cloth towels are also friendly to the environment. They eliminate the inevitable pile of hundreds of wet, dirty paper towels waiting for garbage pick-up and they don’t create landfill waste. Neither do they waste trees.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:18px;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 128, 0);"><strong>Quality Product Saves Money And Time</strong></span></span><br />Northwest has researched dairy towels especially for pre-milking udder prep. After considering size, weight, economy and maintenance, they developed the Sani-Sure towel and now offer three choices. They sell standard, heavyweight and recycled dairy towels in bulk lots. According to Dahl, “Before this, dairy farmers who wanted cloth towels had to resort to such unlikely methods as making their own, searching in Goodwill and discount stores, or buying larger, expensive industrial towels.”</p>
<p>Sani-Sure dairy towels are first quality Turkish towels and are washcloth size with machine hems. Both standard and recycled are sold in approximately 900 (50#), 450 (25#) and 180 (10#) towel lots. Heavyweights are sold in 600 (50#) towel lots.</p>
<p>Sani-Sure dairy towels are known for their absorbency. Dahl shares the reason. Most terry cloth is made with cotton because the absorbent fiber gets stronger when wet, and it can be sanitized in very hot water using strong bleach and detergent without harm. Terry cloth is usually made with looped pile because the loops act like very small sponges. Looped pile is also better able to withstand the strain of rubbing, pulling twisting and tugging by the user. Loosely twisted loops are softer and more absorbent than tightly twisted loops, which produce a rougher fabric. Long pile is more absorbent than short pile. Terry cloth is most absorbent when it has loops on both sides. Cotton can absorb up to 27 times its own weight in water.</p>
<p>Sani-Sure dairy towels not only improve the bottom line, but also contribute to the better of the environment — which helps environmentally and also reminds dairy producers that they are a large part of the recycle-reuse-reclaim purpose. Every little bit helps.</p>
<p>“Because cloth towels are washed and re-used, they can cut dairy towel expense up to 60-70 percent compared to the cost of paper towels, even when factoring in the cost of a washer, dryer and detergent,” Dahl notes.</p>
<p>Several Northwest Environmental Systems customers have shared similar stories like the one told by Swanson Dairy in Emmet, Idaho. “On our small dairy, we had always used paper towels. One day I decided we were going to try cloth towels. There was nothing wrong with paper, just trying to go more ‘Green.’ No one really commented on the switch until one evening my sister and I were milking. I hadn’t gotten the towels washed and thought we could use up the rest of the paper towels. WRONG! “Paper? I’m not using paper!” said my sister. She walked into the house, started the wash, and didn’t come out till they were done.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Po-Cop Dairy of Rockford, Illinois, says, “We switched from paper to cloth towels about 6 years ago, and couldn’t be happier! Our first batch of Sani-Sure towels lasted over 5 years, and they take lots of abuse. We would recommend them to anyone.”</p>
<p>So, what does it cost to get started? The original out-of-pocket cost is a trade-off.</p>
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<p><span style="color:#008000;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong>The Simple Economics of Cloth Dairy Towels </strong></span></span></p>
<ul><li>Hard paper doesn't really clean or dry the udder well enough.</li>
<li>You don't like the continuous daily expense of paper.</li>
<li>You feel bad about the volume of paper waste you are creating for the environment.</li>
<li>SANI-SURE Cloth Towels clean and dry more thoroughly.</li>
<li>SANI-SURE Cloth Towels cut your yearly towel expense by over 50%!</li>
<li>SANI-SURE Cloth Towels don't create landfill waste or need garbage pick-up.</li>
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<p><strong>1. Assumptions:</strong><br />a) 100-cow herd milking 2 times per day, using one towel/cow/milking to dry.<br />b) Cost of Sani-Sure cloth towel is $250 per 800. (12 oz/dozen style)<br />c) Minimum usage of each Sani-Sure cloth towel: Use/Wash/Dry = 100 times each.<br />d) Purchase price of paper towels is $22 per 2,000 (one time use).</p>
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<p><strong>2. Mathematics: </strong> Cloth Paper<br />Purchase Cost (per use) .003 .0110<br />Soap Cost .0010 –<br />($5/gal., 3 oz./wash-120 towels)<br />Washer/Dryer Cost .0015 –<br />($450 used, 7 yr. life)<br />Total Cost Per Use .005 .0110<br /><strong>COST PER YEAR $365.00 $792.00</strong></p>
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<p><strong>3. Bottom Line:</strong><br />Sani-Sure Cloth Towels will cut your dairy towel expense in half!</p>
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</tr></tbody></table><p>No matter how it is penciled out, Sani-Sure cloth towels will cut dairy towel/paper expense by over half, clean and dry the cow’s udder more effectively and dramatically reduce paper waste!</p>
<p>On the average, a towel should get a minimum of 100 uses, but that will vary by the thread count and weight of the towel. The life of a towel also depends on the user. Routinely using bleach, or using the towels for shop rags, cleaning, or other chores, will shorten the life of the towels.</p>
<p>Several studies over the years by Sani-Sure customers have shown that and the average amount of usage has been between 225 and 350 uses per towel. Several customers have also reported that when towels are too worn out for udder prep, they recycle them into shop rags before they throw them away.</p>
<p>The Sani-Sure cloth towels are all about cleanliness. After all, despite producers’ best efforts to keep stalls and cow lots clean, some cows are going to lay in manure or mud. In rainy seasons, the problem gets worse. Paper towels and wipes, which are thin and smooth, just cannot clean and hold this kind of dirt — they are more likely to just smear it around. The nap on Turkish style towels like Sani-Sure, has the ability to grab and hold any solid particles wiped from the udder. Turkish towels also have more ability to absorb liquid, especially when the udder is dirty.</p>
<p>Certainly, there is the concern about the time and cost to clean and dry the towels. Look at it this way. Instead of taking the paper towels out to the trash, the farmer takes the cloth towels to the washing machine and then places them in the dryer. It is a simple change that saves money and the environment. Some farmers have claimed that they are actually charged extra from the refuse services for their high volume of paper waste. Not only that, but the fact that the paper waste sits for usually a week before it is picked up and causes other sanitary issues.</p>
<p>Owners of large herds may want to use rolling industrial bins and have another bin to keep surplus used towels until they’re all washed. They may have to repeat the wash and dry step two or more times. Usually 100-120 washcloth size towels is a full washer load, unless you have industrial-size appliances.</p>
<p>Maplely Farms in Perrinton, Michigan has been a customer for more than 10 years. “I am so thankful that I learned about Sani-Sure Cloth Dairy Towels probably more than ten years ago. Previously I had used a common cloth we made on the farm. I went to the Sani-Sure cloths (one cloth or side per cow) and started teat dipping. My SCC (Somatic Cell Count) counts plummeted. I wash and dry the cloths every other day, which gives me a reasonable load with my herd of 75 cows. I use the recycled cloths — the cheapest and they work very well. I wouldn’t consider going anywhere else for dairy towels.”</p>
<p><span style="color:#008000;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18px;">The Vision Continues</span></strong></span><br />It has been 43 years since Paul and Justine Fowler founded Northwest Feed Research. Today Northwest Environmental Systems, Inc offers products used by dairy farmers all over the world. Northwest is all about improving conditions for farmers livestock and also improving the environment while assisting the producers with products that save them money for the bottom line and give them better options for their operation.</p>
<p>Environmental control has always been a focus for Northwest Envirofan and Sani-Sure Cloth Dairy Towels are just one line of products that Northwest prides itself in having the unique ability to be large enough to handle the volumes and diversity its customers require, yet small enough to provide the exceptional detail to quality, customer service, and individual attention they deserve. </p>
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<p class="italic"><span class="label-inline">Published :&nbsp;</span><span><span>06/22/2015 - 11:20am</span></span></p>
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bryan </div>
<h4 class="label-above">Tags:&nbsp;</h4><ul><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/sani-sure">Sani-Sure</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/dairy-towels">Dairy Towels</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/green">Green</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/steve-weisman">Steve Weisman</a></li><li class="display-inline-block margin-right-2pc"><a href="/tags/northwest-envirofan">Northwest Envirofan</a></li></ul>Mon, 22 Jun 2015 16:20:17 +0000bryan47426 at https://americandairymen.com